The third-quarter ankle sprain suffered by Kerry Collins, who was hit by DE Bruce Smith, should have been avoided.

Back judge Greg Steed prior to the snap threw a flag and blew his whistle for a delay of game penalty on the Giants. None of the other officials on the field heard the whistle and nearly every player said they did not hear a whistle. LT Ian Allen, who was beaten by Smith on the play, said, “I let up, I heard a whistle and he went around me.”

Referee Walt Coleman said: “If we would have heard it, we would have run in blowing our whistle, making sure we killed the play.” Coleman blamed the stiff wind for blowing the sound away from the action.

* Jesse Palmer threw more passes yesterday (11) than he had previously in his three-year career with the Giants. There will be more passes coming from the backup quarterback, as Palmer figures to start on Sunday in New Orleans after Collins went down.

“It’s a huge opportunity, it’s great if I get a chance to play this week. I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Palmer, who completed seven passes for 83 yards, but was sacked five times. “I got to tell you, I had a ton of fun being out there with the guys, competing, fighting with the guys again, although the game didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. It was just good being back out there and kind of playing football again.”

Palmer did accomplish something, as his 16-yard pass to Amani Toomer was the Giants’ first fourth-down conversion of the season. They failed on their first 10 chances.

* Two lowlight moments for the Giants: CB Ralph Brown was penalized twice on one play – for being the 12th man on the field and for stepping offsides as he tried to sprint off the field on a Redskins FG try. Four minutes later, S Johnnie Harris drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he kicked the penalty flag after he erroneously thought CB Frank Walker was called for pass interference.